Day 286-288: Karamea, New Zealand


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Oceania » New Zealand » South Island
November 12th 2009
Published: November 12th 2009
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Sunday, November 8th


We hadn’t seen Wobbles in two days and we were really worried about her. Bruce walked down to the building site mewing and calling her. When we arrived down there we were very relieved to hear that he’d found her. She was very scared and skittish, having spent two nights out in the wild. At least we knew she was safe and still around.

We continued with the structure, but the going was slow because today we only had one chainsaw. Even so we were still happy with our progress. We felt confident and enjoyed applying the thinking pattern. Late in the afternoon when all was quiet on site Bruce got Wobbles to come near. Slowly and cautiously she explored the area and got more and more confident. Soon she was playing with sticks and being her old self again. She was still skittish and any loud noise made her bolt.

We said farewell to Tim. He was leaving us today to continue his journey. We were sad to see him go because he’s a great guy and we worked well together. Bruce suggested we all take a few days off. Log building is physically and mentally taxing, so Bruce suggested we not even think about log building for the next few days. Officially, the course is done, but we’ll continue to work on the structure at a later date. We went to the holiday park where we showered, washed a ton of clothes, made dinner, watched a movie and slept the sleep of the exhausted.

Today’s highlights:
1. Finding Wobbles safe and sound.
2. Completing the log building course.

Monday, November 9th


We slept late and spent the whole morning catching up with our blog. We’ve been way too busy and way too exhausted to keep up over the last few days. At lunch time we went to Global Gypsy to upload the blogs and Talita made Tortillas for lunch. Wobbles was already settled in and slept almost the entire time we were there. She must’ve had little sleep out there in the wild. We spent most of the afternoon with Bruce and he took Ferdi shopping for lures at the hardware shop across the street. He lent us a rod and two reels so that Ferdi can start to catch his own fish.

Back at the campsite we walked out to the river to see if Ferdi could catch anything. The tide was wrong and the spot wasn’t great, but Ferdi just wanted to wet a lure and try his luck. A short while later we returned empty handed and spent the rest of the evening working on the design for our van and trying to figure out exactly how much of what we’d need. The couple of glasses of red wine didn’t help make our thinking any clearer. After dinner and chatting with a German couple we collapsed on our bed for a good nights rest.

Today’s highlights:
1. Wetting our new lures.

Tuesday, November 10th


It dawned drizzly and cool. Talita phoned the local clinic from a payphone to see when we could see a doctor, because our prescriptions were running low and we needed a script to get it. The first available date was two weeks away and Talita booked it. After breakfast we drove the 100km to Westport, the nearest sizable town. Our first stop was at the iSite to find out where all the places are that we needed to visit. We visited the local clinic to see if they could help, but they were full until December! I’d hate to get ill in this part of the world. Doctors are fewer than hens-teeth.

We walked up and down trying to find the Salvation Army Store but no luck, so we drove to a safety gear shop to see about getting Ferdi a pair of chainsaw safety pants. They didn’t have any so we drove back to the main part of town. En-route we spotted the Salvation Army Store. We were looking for a second-hand bike for Bruce. Unfortunately they didn’t have any. In Westport we had cell signal so we emailed Bruce to hear if he’d heard anything from the chainsaw supplier. He’s been trying to arrange for a demo model of the latest 46cc Makita saw. He phoned to say that he’d managed to arrange it and we could pick it up. The idea was that we buy the saw for ourselves and if we didn’t want it anymore or had to leave he’d buy it from us. We got the saw at a discounted demo rate and a few accessories. We were now the owners of an almost new Makita DCS 4610! Talita was, if possible, even more excited than Ferdi.

Our next stop was the Mitre 10, a hardware superstore chain similar to the South African chain, Builders Warehouse. We got a jigsaw, a drill, some drill-bits, an electric screwdriver, a water level, a straight-edge, a toolbox, a few carpenter’s pencils, some plastic piping, silicone, screws, hinges, varnish, and ten sheets of 7mm plywood. We left with everything we’d need to build our very own campervan! (For those of you who think we’re nuts, Bruce has offered to buy all the tools off us when we’re don’t need it anymore).

It was almost 3pm so we stopped for burgers and kumera chips. With full bellies we went shopping for groceries. Afterwards we filled up with diesel and with a van stacked full of building material, tools and food, we drove back to Karamea. We stopped by the Global Gypsy to chat with Bruce. Some more negative things were going on. It seems that a couple of people in town want him gone because he wouldn’t let them walk over him. Most of the people we’ve met are very happy with his selfless and friendly approach and would like him to stay and uplift the community with his positive and empowering projects. It’s hard to believe that some people can be such viscous liars. We felt bad for Bruce. No good deed goes unpunished it seems. On top of all of the pressures he’s baby boy is hours away from being born in the US and he’s standing by the internet for any news from his partner.

Back at the Karamea holiday park we booked into a cabin for the next six nights. The friendly owner upgraded us to a big cabin and gave us permission to work on our van. She even offered us the use of all her husband’s tools and a spot to work right next to his workshop. Our faith in the goodness of mankind restored, we unpacked the entire van into the cabin. It’s a good thing the lady gave us that upgrade. We wouldn’t have been able to fit all our stuff into a smaller room. We were still full from lunch so we skipped dinner and went to bed.

Today’s highlights:
1. Getting our own chainsaw.
2. Buying all the stuff we’ll need to kit out our van.
3. Being upgraded to a bigger cabin.

Thought for the day:
Just because you’re doing good deeds and trying to help others doesn’t mean that your life will be easy. There are a lot of evil in the world that would love to see you fail.


Additional photos below
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Tools! Tools! And more tools!Tools! Tools! And more tools!
Tools! Tools! And more tools!

Please pay special attention to the sexy chainsaw on the right
Our room at the holiday parkOur room at the holiday park
Our room at the holiday park

Very nice to be upgraded


12th November 2009

You got the skilz yo!
Hey ouens, julle bou darm maar vreeslike mooi bende huise hoor! Ek is nogals baie impressed met julle nuwe skills. So..how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck would chuck wood? Baie sterkte met die van upgrade, hoop alles verloop vlot en hoop daai chain saw pants het nie binnekort nodig om sy werk te doen nie. Goggles aan, gloves aan, booze down!

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